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Thursday, October 20, 2016

Quick Sips - The Book Smugglers October 2016

The Year of the Superhero at The Book Smugglers might be winding down, but that doesn't mean there isn't a few more surprises in store for 2016. Which is why I hesitate to post this review. Not because I didn't love the story (spoiler alert: I did!), but because I worry that there might be a release later in the month to coincide with Halloween and I'm worried by posting this I'll miss it. But these are the risks of a reviewer. What is here is a story that sets up the fourth and final book the Extrahuman Union series. These stories are always gripping and this one brings in action and angst and identity, the main character stuck between being broken and being...something else. It is a profound story that makes me quite excited to read the novels, but until then I should really get to that review!

This story speaks to me of change and transition, progress and struggle. The main character, Penny, is a woman who has worn many hats. Has acted as many people. As Silverwyng, young and believing that what she was doing was right. As Broken, homeless and afraid, scavenging and hurt. And finally as Penny, a woman with a name instead of a title, and a life that seems just outside her reach. And yet she's back in New York, the place where she was first Silverwyng, then Broken, and the place brings back the ghosts of her past selves. Kinda literally. The story shows Penny entering into a new phase of life, into a new role, but first has to put some of the old ones to bed. And what follows is fast and frantic, bold and fun. I have to say that with every time I reenter this world the story takes place in I'm fascinated. In part because each of the short stories that have come out are separated by novels. Or, to me, novel-shaped holes (because I am super behind on my reading and haven't gotten to it yet). Which doesn't detract from the stories. They stand brilliantly on their own. Indeed, it allows for an interesting examination of the setting glimpsed only in these snippets, a progress that seems both slow but also hopeful. That old hurts slowly fade. That old wrongs are slowly righted.

[SPOILERS] And I love that here the sense of oppression is starting to lift in the setting. It isn't gone, as the attacks of t he story go to prove, but the oppressive forces aren't what they were. They are stripped down and on the decline, a wraith of what they were. Resistance is more possible and there is the sense, for me at least, that maybe there will come a time when there can be proper integration, proper peace. And this is embodied in the story by Penny's relationship to her son. Her son, who is estranged, who never knew his mother. And who remains just out of reach because of what has been done to Penny, because she has to live in fear. And yet that is also where the hope lives, that Penny decides to fight in part so that she can believe in the world where she doesn't have to any more. Where she can live as herself and maybe have some sort of relationship with her child. It's a touching and powerful moment at the end of the story, and a truly amazing final line to tie everything together. Seriously, this is a beautiful story, and you should check it out along with the rest of the Extrahuman Universe!

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SPOILER POLICY

I try to place spoiler warnings in the text of my reviews where people who do not want to know what happens in the plot of the text can look away. That said, I am more than capable of mistakes and sometimes in my enthusiasm to talk about spoilery parts of the story might forget to properly warn. I am sorry for that but please be aware that it is possible I will unintentionally spoil things. Thank you for your understanding.